"RRRRRAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRR!!!!!"
—Alyndra, as a T-Rex, Heroes of the Vale
Watch Heroes of the Vale – Chapter 2, Episode 15: Elder Brain
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Dramatis Personae
Our heroes are 8th-level characters:
- Todd Kenreck as the Dungeon Master
- Keen, Eladrin Eldritch Knight Fighter played by TJ Storm
- Briv, Half-Orc Oath of Heroism Paladin played by Adam Bradford
- Penelope, Halfling Circle of Land Druid played by Hope LaVelle
- Alyndra Alexandria Garanahil Sarrbarand, Lorekeeper of Rime Spiro, Kinscribe of Clan Monkeymouse, High Elf Cleric/Wizard played by Jen Kretchmer
- Orkira, Dragonborn Light Domain Cleric played by Lauren Urban
Full Summary
In the moments before heading into battle final preparations are made. Alyndra casts water breathing on all of her allies, then polymorphs into a tyrannosaurus rex. Penelope uses her Wild Shape to transform into a dire wolf. Briv summons his armor and weapon and stands ready to fight. After bestowing Keen and Alyndra with a death ward, Orkira casts protection from evil and good on herself to try and prevent any further mental intrusions. Keen takes the rod, and with its activation, everyone is hurtles through space in a blinding flash. They land firmly in the chamber of the Elder Brain. The floor is covered in a foot-deep layer of viscous pink liquid, filled with wriggling illithid tadpoles. Hovering just a few feet above them is a supernaturally massive brain, with black tentacles writhing out to all corners of the room.
Their unexpected arrival surprises the Elder Brain, and the heroes immediately leap into action, wasting no time taking advantage of it’s shock! Penelope sinks her razor-sharp fangs into the illithid master's brain-meat, while Briv helps launch Keen high into the air to land on top of the creature. Keen conjures a cloud of daggers as he balances on top of the slippery flesh, and Briv cuts into the monster with his greatsword. In her T-Rex form, Alyndra charges forward to join her friend in biting into their enemy, tearing into the brain even as she slams the pink fluid on the ground with her tail. Several mind flayer tadpoles are crushed and float to the surface, and noticing the danger Orkira casts radiance of the dawn to hit both the Elder Brain and the tadpoles as possible, and dozens of the tiny creatures are pop in a burst of light as their master psychically wails in anger and pain.
A writhing black tentacle shoots out of the Elder Brain, striking Orkira and wrapping around her body to grapple her before waves of psychic static blast out of the monster—a Mind Blast more powerful than any mind flayer could summon. Briv’s new paladin abilities help his allies resist the brain's psychic attack, but it isn't enough to aid everyone. Penelope is momentarily stunned and takes psychic damage from the attack. Balancing on top of the monstrous brain, Keen goes into his blade dance and slices deep into its gray matter with his glaive. Still focused on the cleric it has grappled, the Elder Brain strikes out at Orkira again, causing her to lose concentration on her spell of protection. Briv takes advantage of its focus to slash deeply into the aberration, lighting it up with his smite, but the Elder Brain maintains its assault on Orkira even as she drops unconscious! Alyndra bites and tears into the aberration as she tries to get between it and her friend, but the Elder Brain refuses to be distracted from the grappled cleric.
Orkira is at death's door, and the battlefield swims in and out of focus. For a moment, she finds herself sitting on the side of a familiar volcano next to her deity, the Phoenix. They commiserate about the tragedy of the battle. She understands why the Elder Brain would focus on killing her after everything they’ve been through. The talk with the Phoenix fills her with fighting spirit, and suddenly the dragonborn finds a last reserve of strength and pulls back to consciousness! A natural 20 on a death saving throw!
Injured and unable to take out the Heroes' healer, the Elder Brain realizes that the fight isn't one it can win. It prepares to plane shift away. Keen refuses to let it escape, and he uses his natural talents for traveling between planes as well as the magic of the Rod to help pull himself and his friends along for the ride. The Elder Brain slips between the planes—and so do the Heroes of the Vale! They appear in the center of an alien room made of metal and filled with violet light. A dozen mind flayers attend to glowing panels on the walls, and another section of the wall is covered in a transparent wall of force that looks out into a field of stars with huge chunks of rocks floating by. The whole room hums and vibrates from the power of an unseen engine. There is a moment of shock and confusion on all sides as the illithids turn around to stare at the Heroes of the Vale, covered in pink goo. That moment is broken as Penelope rushes to Orkira’s side to offer a cure wounds as Keen continues his assault. He slices completely through the Elder Brain, carving it into pieces in a final death blow!
In a flash of memory and inspiration, Briv recognizes the controls for the wall of force, and calls to his companions to quickly join him near that panel. Taking out his immovable rod he orders everyone to hold on to each other and the rod before activating the panel and dropping the shield. All of the air is sucked out of the room as it is opened up to cold vacuum of space, but the heroes manage to cling to each other while the mind flayers are launched into the void. They plane shift away as Briv closes the wall of force, and Alyndra casts her tiny hut to give everyone air to breathe again.
As the ship replenishes with air, the group explore and examine their curious surroundings. Thanks to her intelligence and history with learning new cultures Alyndra begins to figure out how to control the ship, though it may take her several weeks of study. Orkira takes a moment to sigh with relief over the remains of the Elder Brain, while Briv uses his lay on hands to heal her battered body. Several strange and interesting items are found; a mind blade, mind carapace armor, several mind lashes, and a shield of far sight. There are many rooms on the ship filled with the mutilated remains of beings who have been tortured and experimented, as well as various brains in jars and other creepy items. None of these beings are recognizable, but all are given a respectful burial in space.
Having studied the maps and stars, Alyndra has figured out that it will take three months of travel to return to Valeheim. Keen wants to return with the ship to add it to his collection in the Feywild. While everyone agrees the ship would be useful, there is concern about being absent for an extended period of time, as well as curiosity to find out if killing the Elder Brain actually stopped the mind flayer army. Alyndra casts sending several times to contact her father to get an update on the situation. Avren relays that the githyanki have returned with more ships and are laying waste to everything, and suggests they return as quickly as possible. He relays that this world was never meant to be habitable, it was designed as a prison for a creature filled with rage and anger. And on top of all of that things have turned dire very quickly. The weather has deteriorated, every battle against the gith is a failure filled with death, and he implores the group to get back soon.
While searching the ship, Orkira stumbles across a familiar deck of cards, with two cards removed and face down on the floor. Recognizing the danger of the deck of many things she calls to her friends for assistance while making sure the rest of the deck remains closed. That item is supposed to be safely tucked inside Alyndra's bag, but when she reaches inside to check she finds a tiny black pudding instead, and carefully puts it into a stoppered bottle. Keen uses his glaive to flip over the cards on the floor, and while they are both missing the face art the names are clear: Ruin and Death. Apparently the issues back home are in part the result of these activated cards, though the group does not understand how they were pulled nor how they could be affecting their home that is still so far away.
Briv asks for the deck as he wants to destroy it to prevent other cards from being drawn, but Orkira is worried that once they recapture Ruin and Death they will need to put the cards back in the deck. They can feel that somehow this deck has been affected by the apparatus they all entered. Orkira suggests they use the Rod on the cards the same way they used it on Penelope and Lihi, but no one is sure it will work and the Rod many not have many uses left before it breaks. Worried that all of this destruction is being brought on Valeheim to try and free the creature Avren warned about, Alyndra recalls a story of a god whose son had been murdered. Filled with anger and rage the god created another son called Vale, whose only purpose was to avenge that death.
Drawn to the deck of many things, Penelope asks what is possible when pulling from it and if they could create something that will help. Briv warns that the deck is filled with wondrous boons as well as horrible calamities, and relying on chance is a fools game. Orkira agrees as she is worried they will just create more problems, while Alyndra thinks that chance has its place in the universe. As they discuss options, the tiny halfling secretly takes the deck and pulls a card: The Void.
Penelope’s body falls limply to the ground as her friends watch her soul be drawn out and into an unknown location.
The Elder Brain is finally dead, but now even more disasters ravage back home and Penelope's soul is trapped in an unknown location! Find out how our heroes take on these new problems on Wednesday, October 9th at 2pm PT on twitch.tv/dndbeyond!
Lauren "OboeCrazy" Urban is the Community Manager for D&D Beyond, as well as a professional classical musician on oboe and English Horn. When she's not playing a Bard in real life she's a prolific Dungeon Master and player on a variety of livestreams and podcasts. She lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband Luke where they spend their free time playing video games and drinking tea. The best way to keep up with Lauren's busy schedule is to follow her on Twitter at @OboeCrazy.
WHY THE VOID WHY WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE THE VOID. WHY.
Rule of Grog: It always is the Void eventually.
Why couldn't Penelope have got something like fool instead?!
Penelope failed us
The void is always there and always hungry.
Indeed, but WHY HALF-PINT
So much for halfling luck
Have you seen my squire?
Noooooooooooo!
Terrible
Just terrible
Yikes
*megalovania intensifies*